Santa Ana's First Public Refueling Station for Natural Gas Vehicles Helps Drivers Save Money, Clean the Air

SEAL BEACH, Calif.--Oct. 6, 2003--Clean Energy, North America's leader in clean transportation (formerly ENRG), opened up Santa Ana's first public refueling station for natural gas vehicles (NGVs) today, accelerating a proven transportation technology that's cleaner and less expensive than gasoline.

"NGVs are a clean and practical alternative to gasoline, and we applaud the private sector for helping to make natural gas more available to the public as a transportation fuel," said Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.

The station, located at 3210 S. Maple Ave. (off East Columbine Ave. near Main Street), can refuel up to four vehicles at a time and accepts payment from Visa, Mastercard and Clean Energy's credit card. The station's immediate users will include shuttle vans and taxis serving John Wayne Airport. NGVs are the only vehicles used to pick up at the airport by California Yellow Cab and Yellow Cab of North Orange County, the two cab companies with contracts to serve the airport's passengers.

"Over the longer term, we hope private individuals use the station and enjoy the benefits of driving their own NGVs," said Jim O'Neill, account manager for Clean Energy, which invested about $540,000 in the new station. "A very popular plus is that drivers of dedicated NGVs can travel in all the carpool 'diamond lanes' in California as single drivers. The state of California grants this special privilege to these vehicles because of their environmental benefits."

NGVs, which cost about the same as gasoline-powered vehicles after taking government incentives into account, represent a tangible means to displace petroleum from the transportation sector and help clean the environment, particularly in fleet applications.

Southern California has more than 65 public natural gas refueling stations that serve about 13,000 natural gas vehicles -- including taxis, buses, street sweepers, vans, shuttles and trucks.

Clean Energy (formerly ENRG) is the largest provider of vehicular natural gas (CNG and LNG) in North America with a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, shuttle, taxi, police, intrastate and interstate trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets with tens of thousands of vehicles fueling at more than 150 locations in the United States and Canada. Customers include Los Angeles International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, SuperShuttle, SunLine Transit, Foothill Transit, Waste Management, Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, SYSCO Foods, Ft. Worth Transportation Agency, Denver International Airport, Denver RTD, MTDB of San Diego, LaGuardia Airport, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and the US Navy. The company partners with Ford Motor Company to help expand its market share of natural gas vehicles. Clean Energy is a private company whose major shareholders include Boone Pickens, Terasen Inc. (formerly BC Gas Inc., TSE: TER.TO), Westport Innovations Inc. and Perseus 2000 LLC. Information at: www.cleanenergyfuels.com